Thatcher’s funeral cost British taxpayers $2.5 million

Margaret Thatcher’s funeral cost British taxpayers an estimated £1.6 million ($2.5 million 1.9 million euros), with a further £2 million spent on police who would have been on duty anyway, Downing Street said Thursday.

Though never likely, back-of-an-envelope newspaper guesses in the run-up to the former prime minister’s funeral last week estimated the cost at £10 million.

That inflamed far-left activists, angry at the expenditure on the Conservative titan amid the public spending cuts aimed at reining in Britain’s budget deficit.

Of the £1.6 million figure, £1.1 million went on policing and security, Downing Street said.

The remaining £500,000 was spent on ceremonial costs such as St Paul’s Cathedral, receptions after the funeral and circulating the invitations.

Thatcher’s family paid for the flowers and the undertaking costs, for which no figures have been published.

Thatcher, in office from 1979 to 1990, proved a hate figure for the far left in death as much as in life.

Spurred on by the £10 million guess, some demonstrators yelled “waste of money” during her funeral procession, while others brandished banners with the figure on and more cited it as their reason for protesting.

Thatcher was Britain’s only female prime minister and the longest-serving of the 20th century. She died on April 8 following a stroke.

The 87-year-old was given a ceremonial funeral with full military honours at St Paul’s Cathedral in London on April 17.